Rhodes University lecturer, Claudia Martinez Mullen, laid a charge of book theft against Unemployed People's Movement (UPM) leader Ayanda Kota last year that ultimately led to his arrest last Thursday.
Rhodes University lecturer, Claudia Martinez Mullen, laid a charge of book theft against Unemployed People's Movement (UPM) leader Ayanda Kota last year that ultimately led to his arrest last Thursday.
Kota and Martinez Mullen had co-operated in planning protest actions, until the missing book soured their relationship. Martinez Mullen helped Kota with his legal expenses after he was arrested on charges of public violence on 10 February last year.
When he was released on bail after spending a night in jail, Martinez Mullen was one of the first people to greet him on the steps of the courtroom. In terms of his bail conditions, Kota was not allowed to participate in any public protest action. Martinez Mullen took up the megaphone and spoke out at subsequent protests in the name of the UPM. The public violence charges against Kota were dropped in August.
According to a police statement, Kota “allegedly borrowed one book and stole two others from the home of the victim and failed to return them”. The reason Martinez Mullen felt so strongly about the books, she told Grocott's Mail, was because of their sentimental value: they had been given to her by her great friend, acclaimed poet and social activist, the late Dennis Brutus.
Kota told Grocott's Mail he had misplaced the books, and that he had offered to replace them. In response to a request for further comment, Martinez Mullen said she was preparing an official statement regarding Kota’s arrest.
